Smacking at school 80s

[Ilostit]

Leading on from another thread about the 90s. I was prob about 6-7 so 1985-1987 ish and I was smacked by my headteacher. It only happened once. I don’t remember why (I was a very well behaved child but came from a troubled house and I may have played up if things were bad at home).

I was called into the office called a naughty girl and smacked.

I hate that it’s one of my memories from childhood. My parents never physically abused me. That Headteacher is the only person to have ever hit me.

Was anyone else hit at school in the 80s?

Yes, we moved to wales in ‘82 and I went to a very small village school aged 8. There were only 3/4/5 children in each year group and we were all taught together in one big room, so maybe 20/25 pupils on the room ranging from 7-11 years old. The infants were taught next door in a smaller room. I clearly remember corporal punishment, the headmaster used to smack people, mostly the boys, don’t really remember it happening to the girls. He also used to shake them by the shoulders, screw his knuckles into the gap in between your shoulder-blades etc…it was horrible, and never happened to me, but was very distressing to watch.

In our school it was a ping pong bat for infants and the cane for juniors. Some teachers would deliver a slap from time to time.
I was the wrong end of the paddle once, although I can’t remember what for. Never had the cane thankfully.
Some kids seemed to be hauled in front of the class weekly.

It wasn’t nice but it feels like it was fairly usual practice in our area.
Other people my age had the slipper, the strap or other such things. It’s pretty horrific now when you think about it.

There was no corporal punishment in high school.

I was in primary 1981 - 1988, when I think it was outlawed.

Not smacked but I had a secondary school teacher who would throw things at pupils (the board rubber usually but anything that came to hand) This was right up til the mid 90s and I'm pretty sure that would have been illegal by then! That board rubber bloody hurt if you got it in the head.

Yes. Had a teacher who smacked you across the hands with a ruler, locked pupils in cupboards and made them walk around the school playground with a sandwich board on with insulting slogans. This was primary school!
Unbelievable when you think about it. Sadistic bastards.

I was born early sixties so I was at school from about 1970 I guess. Never been hit smacked, caned whatever you want to call it by any one at school or at home. Not usual to be hit at school in the 80s I don’t think.

Yes, smacked by my year R/1 teacher for not drawing the right number of soldiers. I told my parents and they confronted her, but she lied about it. I also remember having my wrist twisted round (called Chinese burn at the time) by a music teacher for holding my recorder in the wrong hand. That would be 83-86 ish. Otherwise quite a nice school & was happy there.

I remember being dragged across the classroom by my arm and shouted at - I was probably 6 or 7. It's my earliest school memory 😔

No I didn’t even know it was allowed in the 80s. I remember one Dad coming in to speak to our teacher and asking her to smack his son if he misbehaved and the teacher was horrified and said they were not allowed to do that.

No, corporal punishment was still legal when I started school in 1984 though.

One of my old teachers said that she had a cane in the corner of a classroom and never had to use it in over 20 years. As soon as it was banned behaviour deteriorated.

@tiredanddangerous we had one of those too. He was an awful shot and you were at most risk if you were a row away from the person he was aiming at.
Our last year in primary we had an awful woman. I remember her grabbing a boy by his ear, dragging him to the front of the room and throwing his head at the blackboard.

Late 80s at junior school I remember a lad being put across the teacher's knee and smacked in front of everyone.
He went straight home and told his mum, who barged into the classroom the next day to have it out with the teacher who said 'well did he tell you what he'd done?'. She'd never actually asked him so when he then told her in front of everyone, she said he'd get another when he got home.

I don't remember any other kids being smacked but the teachers at senior school did throw wooden blackboard erasers at pupils when they weren't paying attention.

My school was very violent in the 80s and my parents were too. The idea that 'it does no harm' is ridiculous. It did loads to me. I never hit my kids and they are probably even better behaved than I was as they are not living in constant fear of assault.

I started primary school in 1978 ,I remember getting slapped across the legs for dropping a crisp packed ,I was maybe six ,I remember the ruler was threatened a lot ,I can't remember if it was used?
Corporal punishment was still legal in schools untill 1986/87

I didn't think that smacking in school was allowed in the 80s at all - not as late as 1987. But maybe my (state) school just didn't use it.

I remember being slapped (not hard) by a teacher in 1979 when I would have been 7.

My mum said she used to get caned every day just because. If she hadn't actually done anything it was because of "dumb insolence". She has deformed fingers because of it.

Late 70’s I would have been in Y3, I had a teacher who was a right old hag, she was about 312 years old.

She absolutely walloped me repeatedly on the back of the legs for something ridiculously small like breaking my pencil.

I went out of school in floods of tears and told DM what had happened and she went in and wiped the floor with the old hag and told her exactly what she’d do to her if she ever laid a finger on me again.

She never did.

I miss my DM.

I remember our HT saying to one of the boys when we were in top juniors (small school-she taught both years) that she wished corporal punishment hadn’t been banned.

A quick search shows it was banned in 1986. This would have been in 1988/9.

My mum said a teacher made her wait behind after school and then she pulled her knickers down and smacked her on bare bottom.

I went to a junior school where they punished you by making you sit with hands on head for ages, lose all playtime for weeks and threatened to lock toilets up all day. There was a teacher who was very mean and during playtime if she saw a child going to the toilet she would deliberately stop to make them wait and suffer even longer and say "good I'm glad you need the toilet". As an adult I have high anxiety over toilets and if I see a toilet open in public I always have to use it in fear it will get locked up.

Another school a teacher tied a boys feet together with shoelaces and in secondary school the toilets were locked with 15 mins access in morning and open at lunch and 15 mins access in afternoon. Again did not help with anxiety with toileting.

We used to be threatened by being hit with a slipper in the 80’s. And I remember a board rubber being thrown at our heads when it was felt we were being noisy.

These memories are so horrible. When I was in school I remember the teacher putting pepper in one boys mouth. I'm not sure what he had done. I remember feeling sick that the teacher had done that. We never had things like that at home happen to us. I hate to think of a little child being scared and hit and humiliated. I wonder if the teachers feel ashamed now when they look back at how they treated little innocent, defenseless children. Absolutely awful.

I got the wooden spoon twice in infant school.

I got the wooden spoon twice in infant school so I was about seven. Early 1980s. Juniors had the slipper but I think it was banned the year we moved up as it had gone by the time we got to juniors.

I don't remember it hurting but I remember the spoon itself. With felt tip pen there was a sad face with tear drops drawn on one side, they'd hit you with it, then turn the spoon round and there was a happy face drawn on the other. Bastards!

I don't remember telling my parents. I wasn't hit at home.

I was at primary in the 80s and remember smacking hands with rulers, teachers throwing stuff at kids heads and teachers hitting children's heads with books.

In 1985 ish I had a punishment of eating soap.

I went to school in the 70s-80s. I was hit (violently) at home and hit at school where it was commonplace. I was a good child at school and, ironically, get slapped repeatedly across my bare legs because I wasn’t applying myself to my embroidery.

In 1971, aged 5, the headmaster leant me over his desk and hit my bottom with "the slipper" (an actual mens slipper). I'd pulled the chair away as another child was about to sit down......on purpose. I was hit regularly by my mother too. Round the head.